Upon entering this old (established 1793) restaurant, we knew we were in for an unusually authentic Lisboeta dining experience, well worth the ten block walk from our apartment. Located on the wide, busily trafficked boulevard of Campo Grande, this restaurant was the dining highlight of our five days in Lisbon. As we waited to be seated we saw a huge tank before us filled with fish swimming around it. Later on my husband and son were to eat one of them, for they ordered dourado- fortunately, as fresh fish is a specialty of this restaurant.

I don’t mean to imply that the pork scallops I enjoyed were deficient in flavor. They were fork-tender and accompanied by a lovely, complimentary brown sauce. But my companions’ fish sent them into raving ecstasies about its subtle taste. No stranger to the dorado of Baja California that a fisherman friend has often given us, my hubby pronounced this dorado the finest he had ever tasted.

Our black-coated waiter of years even more advanced than ours, spoke no English, so it was sign language all the way after I had timorously ventured some Spanish and discovered that language was unknown to him also We pointed to the menu for most of the food we wanted. While we waited for our main course we ate the tidbits we ordered that included some excellent, tangy cheese and smoked ham. Yes, we were charged for very good bread, corn kernels and butter, a couvert according to custom in fine Portuguese restaurants -5.01 euro-but we would have been charged anyway if we hadn’t eaten them. We were tired and hungry, after a frustrating day, this second night in Lisbon, so we devoured our appetizers.

Some 20 minutes or so after we ordered, our main courses arrived but the leisurely pace suited us. And it does take time to prepare fresh fish. Potatoes accompanied our main courses, simply browned along with the meat or fish they came with. For dessert I had a yummy chocolate bolo (ball), a soft-texture, fudgy cake. My companions had white wine with their meal and my husband finished off with a glass of port for dessert. Of course, I had my usual lemon soda. The tab was 70.82 euro, not cheap, but a fair price for good value.

The décor was what could be conjured up as typical rural Portuguese with many paintings, old plates, and culinary artifacts like the ancient pewter salt and pepper dispensers on our table, We were the only tourists in the place as everyone around us ordered comfortably in Portuguese. You can access this traditional restaurant’s menu on the web site above by using the little window for "ingles "that appears when you click on "ementas." Also take a look at their photos as we didn't take any for it was dark around 9 p.m.